The largest independent retailer in Kuwait, The Sultan Center Food Products Co. KSC (better known as The Sultan Center or TSC), has embarked on phase two of its plan to create a more efficient and agile supply chain, using Manhattan Associates' Scope supply chain solutions platform. Already delivering productivity improvements and serving as a key enabler for continued growth, Manhattan's solutions will now be used to expand warehouse capabilities and gain true visibility of the whole supply chain.

"We initially implemented Manhattan's solutions to help us manage our rapid expansion and set up a platform to launch future growth," said Victor Kemeny, chief information officer, The Sultan Center. "With these improvements we can grow into new countries."

TSC is a supplier of supermarket items, perishables and general merchandise in the Middle East. Its portfolio includes retail, restaurants, trading, fashion and telecommunications and it holds a 15 per cent share of Kuwait's retail market. Operating four data centres, it imports and distributes a wide range of foreign brands, with the goal of maintaining high on-shelf availability. To achieve this, it not only needs an agile supply chain, but for its food-oriented business operations it must also comply with regulations from the health ministry.

"We're making great strides in improving overall supply chain performance, implementing processes that make our end-to-end supply chain operations more streamlined and efficient, and in compliance with health regulations," noted Kemeny. "Our legacy system was limiting us, but now we have increased visibility of stock, improved picking rates, better accuracy and increased volumes. We're in a position to make our supply chain one of the best performing in the region."

Commenting on the implementation, Jan-Paul Boos, senior director at Manhattan Associates said, "With the range and volume of imported goods it is handling, the regulatory environment and sheer scale of operations it is managing every day, an organisation the size of TSC has to have an agile and constantly evolving supply chain. On-shelf availability is key, but goods, particularly food products, have to be tracked closely because of the health ministry's requirements. Whilst concerns such as this are unique to specific business operations, the need for agility is universal all of TSC's retail operations need to be able to adapt to conditions around them, especially where they want those operations to grow internationally. With support from Manhattan's solutions, TSC is making great progress in meeting its operational efficiency improvement and business growth objectives."

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